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It was discovered accidentally fifty years after the initial outbreak. The virus had an unusual property-- it hid. Rather than make its way through the body by utilizing the circulatory system, it preferred to crawl between cells, slowly embedding itself within specific areas of the body; the brain, the reproductive system, the ears and eyes.
Once discovered, the medical community developed a special test to find the virus and was stunned to discover that every subject tested positive. The entire world had been exposed. The nightly news was initially frantic -- it seemed that with a 100% infection rate, the human race was doomed to extinction.
But something was off. Though there had been an alarming drop in worldwide births, they did not cease. Many infected people were having healthy children-- infected as well, but healthy. For some reason, the virus, named EXT70, was ignoring undefined sections of the population, leaving them to reproduce at will.
But something was off. Though there had been an alarming drop in worldwide births, they did not cease. Many infected people were having healthy children-- infected as well, but healthy. For some reason, the virus, named EXT70, was ignoring undefined sections of the population, leaving them to reproduce at will.
Studies were immediately undertaken to find some cause for EXT70's high selectivity. Race did not seem to be a factor, nor did gender, nor age. Eye color was irrelevant, as was height or hair or hand dominance. Predominance to any other genetic distinctions seemed not to matter one bit. But slowly a pattern began to emerge. There was a general rise in sterility among populations living in poor socioeconomic conditions. People who had survived head trauma showed a huge rise in infertility. And although every person born with Aspergers and autism remained hale and fruitful, no babies at all came from couples with one or more Down Syndrome sufferers. Finally one test was discovered to predict with near 100% accuracy whether or not a person would become sterile.
It was an IQ test.
Results below a certain percentile nearly guaranteed sterility for the subject. The number, gauged to be 112, meant that almost 70 percent of human beings were doomed to live out their lives without siring progeny to pass on their names... or their genes. Entire family lines were threatened. Many embarrassed celebrities were vocally outraged that their lovely visage would end with them and demanded a solution. Politicians who were denied producing children clamored for ideas.
Stumbling upon this knowledge the world was outraged, and cried out angrily for an answer: What enemy of humanity existed that would create a mutated virus which selected feebleminded victims and sterilize them? It dawned on them that this would leave the population smarter, which meant they were not looking for an enemy.
Scientists had one overriding question of their own, however, and presented it to their exclusive community with barely containable excitement: What unknowable changes faced humanity generations down the line... as genius mated with genius, without the buffer of mediocrity interrupting brilliance's upward trend? Experts in every corner of the globe searched for answers, and all found none.
Generations passed and average intelligence skyrocketed. But with the certainty of biological imperfections, recessive genetic material eventually surfaced even in super-intelligent fetuses. Not surprisingly they too were born sterile, a guarantee that no simpleminded children would be born of them. The upward IQ trend continued unabated.
In short order another discovery was made. By using a nanoscope, ironically designed by one of the new super geniuses, it was discovered that the virus was not a natural phenomena at all-- it was an electrobionic device! This seemed impossible since, at the time of initial infection, humanity was generations away from the ability to design such a sophisticated machine, but it was true regardless. Certain markers were absent in the virus's genetic stranding which pointed away from nature, and directly at human interference.
Again the world was in uproar. Who would destroy so much of the human population so flagrantly? That question yielded one obvious answer-- a method targeting the stupid must have been created by the smartest among us, and suspicion of the scientific community shot upward. After a few scientists were lynched by mobs of sterile simpletons, geniuses of every stripe were convinced to hide underground... at least until the clamoring crowds were distracted by the next exciting news. During their exile, experimentation on the virus continued in well-hidden labs worldwide, which soon produced fascinating new information that answered most of the world's curiosity, and again the scientists were hailed.
A long strand of inert DNA coding in the virus was unearthed, that used only two of the four nucleotides. Adenine and guanine repeated for tens of thousands of links with no occurrence of cytosine or thymine, a behavior unseen in natural ribonucleic acids, inciting suspicion. Cryptographers were brought in to examine the junk DNA and in short order, definite patterns emerged. It was formed from the long unused Morse code. The pattern of dashes (adenine) and dots (guanine) referred to alphanumeric characters, which in turn spelled out two short sentences. At last, an answer to the painful question plaguing humanity for years was on hand! The result was presented in the Heptaron, the crowded main hall of the esteemed science body L'Arc Technologié, splayed around the seven one-hundred-foot screens defining the cavernous room's perimeter:
It had to be done.
The Idiocracy effect is real.
The roomful of scientists buzzed. Idiocracy? What was that? The cadre of respected elders had no idea what the message meant until a page ran up to the elder scientist Doctor Schon and whispered. With a start, the man harumphed and announced phlegmatically, "It is a feature film!"
"A 'movie'?"
"Sordid entertainment?"
"That's unseemly!"
"Improper!"
"The code must be wrong."
"Gentlemen, wait!" The elder scientist bent to hear more information from the timid page, who finished at length and practically ran from the room in short, scraping steps. Shaking his head, Dr Schon continued. "It seems this movie is about a man of present times being placed as an experiment into a suspended animation chamber and waking 500 years later to a world in chaos, thanks to massive breeding by generations of undereducated morons. The average IQ has dropped alarmingly, the cities lay in shambles and everyone watches mindless television programming ceaselessly."
Another scientist spoke up. "The message is implying that this happens to us?"
"I'm afraid so."
"Are we to assume that this advanced virus... came from us? In the future?"
He sighed. "It seems that way."
"And we are supposed to do... nothing? Just let it continue?"
There was a long pause as Dr Schon mulled over this question. Finally he spoke. "Imagine this scenario: What if we learned how to cure the flu by sending a virus back in time to stop any carriers from being born, wouldn't the good that came out of it take priority over a few unborn children?" He threw up his hands. "I never cared for hypotheticals. It's true the planet is currently experiencing a severe overpopulation problem. It will be corrected all by itself if we take no steps to stop it, if we pretend to have no cure for it--"
"But we HAVE no cure for it!"
Dr Schon glared. "Yes, yes, you know what I mean. We don't LOOK for a cure for it, is what I'm saying. It just remains in our bodies, selecting top contenders for genetic parenting, weeding out risky genes, making each successive generation of human being geometrically smarter than the last."
"But aren't there risks to unchecked intelligence...ifying? Smartening? Aah!" Frustrated, the questioner sat back down, but the point was made.
Dr Schon attempted, "That might very well be the next science in its infancy... the study of overintelligentinization... superintellectualizing..."
"Hyperacuity."
The elder scientist looked towards the voice. "Very good! Hyperacuity! Who said that? Make yourself known, sir!"
From the 'back' of the seven-sided Heptaron came footsteps and, from the shadows, a shimmering man appeared. He approached the podium at room's center, elevating himself on the steps to speak.
He was tall, well built, plainly dressed; his clothing was bright and hard to see clearly, as if emanating light. There was an intensity in his eyes, a glare of determination that seemed to bore through ones head and settled in the deepest center of discomfort. Dr Schon found himself rattled but was able to ask, "Why do you... why do you shine so?"
The man turned to face him, and held out an extended hand. The scientist went to grab it and was shocked when his hand... disturbed... the man's, like stirring a reflection in water, and passed through it. A gasp released from the room. The hand reformed more rapidly than settling water, a bit like mud.
"I think you can see I'm not really here. I am a projection of myself from far off."
"A hologram? Where are you, sir?"
"Not where. When. And quite different from a hologram. Sample the air where I stand and you will see. This image is a precise assemblage of specially chosen molecules from your local environment, held in detailed formation to closely approximate my actual image."
"Am I to understand you are from the future?" Dr Schon asked, while motioning the page forward from his recess with a wave. He spoke quietly to him, and then the page ran off.
"Yes."
"How are you able to speak with us? The mere act of conversing requires a pattern of time lapses, all moving forward."
"My consciousness is temporarily in synchronization with all of yours."
"Ah." The man posing the question seemed unsatisfied and was about to ask a follow-up when the page returned, handing the elder scientist a sampling jar.
"May I?"
"Be my guest."
Carefully Dr Schon held out the open jar; the shining man lowered his arm over it and nodded; the doctor capped the jar and pulled it away. There was a gaping hole in the man's forearm! But almost immediately both edges became diffuse and strained towards each other, like bones seeking a knit. When he moved his arm the separated bottom part moved with it, ignoring its impossible connection. But the arm part in the sample jar remained whole, as if solid! Close inspection showed a network of veins in the sliced flesh, but no blood or plasma dripped, and the clothing edges were sharp as if laser-sliced. Aghast, the doctor held out the faux-grisly jar to the page who dashed off, presumably to a lab for immediate study. The man spoke again, gesturing with his now almost fully reconstructed arm. "I am plan B. The virus was plan A."
Shocked whispers shot through the Heptaron. One angry voice shouted, "What do you mean, you are plan B?" Another yelled, "The virus didn't work! Plan A didn't work, did it?"
"Almost."
"What is the world like in your time? WHEN is your time?"
"I can give no specifics besides the careful plan I will lay out for you. Needless to say, there has to be a change made in the virus. I am here to help you make that happen, as I cannot do it myself-- I can affect nothing physical in this timeline."
Dr Schon hissed, "That's very convenient for you. We're supposed to help you? It seems as though you are the one responsible, not us. We have important work to discuss here, not fix a future of uncertain destiny."
The shimmering man looked pained. "You are right. Our scientists misread a number of confusing genetic anomalies, so the virus instructions are having a less than ideal outcome."
"What kind of outcome?"
"I'm not at liberty to say."
"If you want our help you'll say." Dr Schon stood firm.
The man sighed heavily. "Very well. Our plan worked very well... at first. Every person born was a bona fide genius, and humanity began to make dramatic leaps forward, one such leap being the technology which brings my image to you. But recently, we have had a dramatic rise in the number of superintelligent sociopaths being born."
"How dramatic?"
"Five in seven.""Oh my god."
He face was stone and somber; realizing that full disclosure couldn't possibly hurt his situation he continued through grim lips. "That's an appropriate if antiquated response. Our world is nearly annihilated. The large number of people with a pervasive disregard for the well-being of others has brought about a joy for... of all things... blood sport. Frightening new weapons cover the globe. There's not a street in the world not painted in blood. Geniuses design ever more cruel and damaging killing machines; one created miniscule bullets that enter the body without damage, then move to the brain and then rip the head off quite suddenly. Another wound sharp, microscopic spring cabling into coils and spread them all over the ground. When stepped on they are released and shred a person into strips, nothing larger than sushi. One minute you'll be walking with your wife... the next, she's a pile of shredded meat on the ground." Tears welled in his eyes and the scientists realized with a shock that this was a painful personal mission for the man.
"I'm terribly sorry, sir." Understanding showed in the doctor's face. "But why did you wait so long before returning?"
"We just found out what we did, umm, what our alternate selves did. A thousand years accrues a lot of identicality drift. Soon after the virus was sent, the experiment was lost to the vagaries of time. Fortunately one of our highest IQ people was able to reconstruct accurately the events of the last timeline."
"How high was his IQ, if I may ask?"
"142."
"Forgive me, but that doesn't seem to be very high. We have people alive now with IQ's exceeding 200."
"That is true. But IQ is a quotient of intelligences from across the current spectrum of humanity. By your standards the man's IQ would be closer to 1800."
The room fell silent. One nearby voice murmured, "Jesus. What can a mind do with that kind of processing power?"
"Predict the weather."
The scientist's head snapped up. "What? With what level of accuracy?"
"100%"
"Not possible! What about Chaos Theory?"
"It is figured in."
His simple statement was met with barks of doubt. He waited for silence. "To demonstrate, you're about to have a 17 minute hail storm outside, beginning in a minute and 42 seconds."
"Nonsense! There's been no hail here for 50 years!"
"There was no mention of hail on the weather report!"
"One minute and 34 seconds." On the man's gleaming chest a large digital readout emerged, counting backwards. In a pack the scientists ran and huddled to windows scattered throughout the Heptaron, watching the cloudy skies. At 0:00, to hushed murmurs, hail began peppering the ground.
"Can we please repair my timeline now?"
Working with the man, Liynas, proved to be easy at first, although what he asked seemed frivolous. They were tasked with constructing a large network of machines through which a tone, silent to human ears, would blanket the globe and subtly affect every nanovirus, simultaneously. The machines themselves were not unusual; technology appropriate to build them had been around for decades.
But the tone was proving to be nearly impossible to construct. Liynas would begin simply, with a recipe of sorts he recited from memory. He'd request a middle 'C' played on a Steinway, but it would need to be played in a room of specific dimensions and constructed of certain materials. Only when the recording was finally deemed correct were they permitted to move on with the next. It was meticulous, draining work. The one saving grace was, there was no time limit. They had literally years to complete it.
"I need the sound of a teaspoon tap on a six-ounce crystal wine glass filled with three point two seven ounces of sparkling peach cider." Again, the room specifications were precise; as was the volume, pitch, duration, attack and decay of the resulting note. The assembly was grueling. One particular request, a bull moose bellowing in a mist-enshrined valley at 6am, took nearly a month to get exactly right.
The scientists were frazzled. "How can you tell if the sound you seek is correct?" they would often complain.
"I just can," came Liynas' less-than-serene response.
"How many sounds are in the recipe?"
"In this first hexadecema, sixteen."
"And we've only done three in all this time!? Of how many hexa... hexadecimals are this mega-sound made?"
"Sixteen hexadecimen."
"Jesus Christ."
"Not really relevant."
They worked through the year assembling the impossibly complex noise. Occasionally, during long late-night sessions, Liynas would let slip some information that proved to be immensely interesting to the scientists. One such fact was how the virus came to be. They had wondered how a physical specimen even as small as a virus could travel into the past and the answer was, it couldn't. However, subatomic waves could be generated through time, complex waves which could effect matter at the quantum level, in effect building the virus using tonal instructions.
This is what they were attempting now. Rather than a simple change to software, Liynas was helping them to rebuild each virus, worldwide, from the inside out. It was astonishing.
Each hexadecima of sounds could be tested once completed; there were specific, permanent changes each tone would make to specific physical matter, so Liynas would not let them be run through the worldwide transference network lest they cause catastrophic change on a planetary level. Instead, the first test was to be directed at a tree in a desolate part of Siberia, the only one for a dozen miles in every direction. "Just to be safe," Liynas reassured.
The test area was sealed off, but was visible from twenty directions by pole-mounted cameras. Liynas recited his garbled entry code into L'Arc Technologié's powerful satlink unit; at the same instant the solitary onsite transmitter received the first hexadecima and broadcast it at 2% in the tree's direction. They watched the huge screens silently.
A number of cameras had blacked out. Turning others to face them the problem became apparent. Most of the cameras had been attached to metal poles; they had been unaffected. But there were several wooden poles placed into the ground as well, against Liynas' specific instructions. Originally twenty feet long, they were now almost 600 feet tall and fifty feet wide! They had grown with such speed that the cameras, screwed down to the flat tops, had crushed almost as flat as coasters.
The scientists were awed. All that growth had occurred from simply reacting to a sound... a sound! At a volume barely above a whisper! The advances Liynas was showing them would move technology forward by centuries! Already they were sketching prototypes for a handheld model to be used in the building industry. Want a house? A builder could carve a tiny one of wood, lay it on the ground onsite and shoot it, and it would grow full-sized in an explosive flash! Or in forestry... one tree could now supply all the wood for an entire town!
Even the arm part that Liynas had offered so many months ago was causing an explosive growth in reverse engineering attempts. It had remained cohesive this entire time, even allowing itself to be sliced into for slide samples. What Liynas had said was true-- there was a distinctly architectural pattern holding the assembled molecules together, entirely different from their normal chemical bonds. It was almost as if they had been neatly stacked in an intensely detailed, vast warehouse of shelving which, if human sized, would surely reach the moon from Earth and yet seemed insubstantial... almost illusory. The precision was astonishing.
Liynas smiled at their burbling eagerness and got their attention with a whistle. He smiled at them and said, "Well, that one worked!" The room erupted in howling cheers, not quieting until Liynas held up a palm. "Now what do you say we get started on hexadecima 2?"
The remaining 15 complex sounds proceeded with gathering speed. The scientists were developing a rhythm and a knowledge base for constructing sounds. They had built variable sound chambers which were immensely helpful, as discrepancies could be programmed into the walls, cutting construction time by up to 90% for some sounds. Liynas was able to watch more and instruct less, intruding only to make minor adjustments. The rest of the time he remained in one of the many guest quarters found on the science foundation's premises. He wasn't able to interact with any physical objects, but he required sleep and alone time, much as any human would. His identity was kept a strict secret and he moved between buildings only when nobody on the crowded science campus was watching. Calculating all the variables in such a move was an impossible task that his massive intellect made simple.
As each hexadecima neared completion, Liynas described a small sampling of their remarkable and exciting new abilities. And adding to their diversity, the hexadecimen could be combined in myriad ways to create still other incredible effects, by playing them in pairs and multiples, varying their volumes with respect to each other, adding flutter and pitch adjustments.
Different staging grounds were set up worldwide to test them, in isolated areas rich with natural content for the test. With each test came invariably astounding results. For example, H2 (the second Hexidecima created) could alter any metal through a property range. Point it at a block of copper and depending on the input variables you could end up with room temperature liquid or gaseous or even gooey copper! That was exciting in itself, but when H1 and H2 were played together, one of the possible outcomes formed metallic wood! Alter the inputs slightly and now a new species of tree would be formed that sprouted copper foil leaves, leaves that turned sunlight into electricity at near 100% efficiency!
H3 altered the freezing and boiling points of water. The sound-enhanced water, nicknamed 'warm ice', was able to freeze at higher temperatures and could be heated and poured into molds, cooling like metal and forming strong, clear building products! Unlike the outcome posited in a Vonnegut novel, it would not alter any normal water in contact with it, causing at least some of the scientists to draw a breath of relief.
H4 turned any rock into a soft, malleable putty for 24 hours so that mountains could be tunneled with ease, and then after a day returned to its former hardness in the new shape. All the scoops taken from tunneling, with a little planning, could be easily stamped into ornate stone products of high sheen and durability, retaining all of their stonelike beauty, a green solution that left the construction zone clean.
H5 humorously grew hair on anything alive or dead, but on nonliving objects it grew no further. However on living creatures the new hair came with their own follicular growth factories. Passing around flower petals flowing with luxuriant tresses, many of the distinguished group had the same thought and returned home that evening to gleeful squeals at their returned thick brush. Far better than ego relief though, was the way any item hit with this sound weaved into a strand with the highest tensile strength ever recorded by a wide margin, and looked to be the product which would realize space elevators.
H6 at low levels desalinated water, leaving it deliciously mineral-rich. At higher energies it could separate any compound into its root elements. The scientists had fun turning salt water into sodium and chlorine and hydrogen and oxygen and a hundred other elements in trace amounts. One took the coins from his pocket and separated them into cool blobs of elemental metal.
H7 killed all cancer cells, converting them into lipids the body used for energy. A small metal-detector type booth was rapidly built employing that sound in which anybody who stepped into it came out seconds later cancer free and vibrant. This was taken and placed unobtrusively in a nearby hospital entrance, causing it to later be renamed the 'miracle center' for all its occurrences of spontaneous cancer remission.
H8 could make an exact duplicate of anything. Anything. From seemingly nothing, although the building blocks of matter were everywhere and it was hard to determine exactly where they came from. One of the scientists duplicated himself to the protests of the others. Liynas was silent, presumably to teach a lesson. The copy was perfect in every way, except... it wasn't alive. Now the scientist had a dead body to deal with. Thankfully, H6 was available.
H9 seemed to have no effect on anything, and Liynas was deliberately opaque on the subject, but insisted each of the scientists be exposed to it. Over the coming months the work began to seem easier, with scientists in separate fields coming to similar conclusions, and formerly heated discussions over contrary postulations began drying up and disappearing as they began agreeing on methodology formerly foreign to them. One asked Liynas, "Did that sound make us smarter?"
Liynas shook his head.
Another ventured, "Nicer?"
"Closer."
"What then?"
"Don't get angry... it's the 'golden rule' sound. People hearing it naturally want to treat others the way they themselves would like to be treated."
"Oh. I'm not angry at all." The scientist scratched his head and asked, "But couldn't you use that sound on the people in your time, to stop the violence? If it works here..."
"No for two reasons. One, this virus modification sped up evolution and it doesn't effect us the same way it does you. Second, even if it did... many of my people are treating people the way they would want. They're sociopathic, after all."
"Well, how about shooting it worldwide now, to end war and usher in a new age of human cooperation?"
"So nothing would go wrong with permanently altering all of humanity's brain chemistry, is that what you're asking?" Liynas smiled in that shiny way he had.
"Ah. Of course. Too bad." The scientist wandered off to join another hexidecima assembly group; Liynas wondered briefly if it had been such a good idea exposing them to H9, but knew he could pull the plug if it caused more harm than good.
At long last the final hexidecima was created, involving of all things, the sound of a fearful goat in the back seat of a 1958 Austin Healy traveling a dirt road in Nebraska at 57 miles an hour. When completed, Liynas directed that this test occur aboard a fleet of 625 jets, all equipped with sound distribution hardware, flying 20 miles apart from pole to pole in a straight west line for as far as their fuel would take them, coupled with the worldwide directive for people to stay indoors while the jets were overhead and soon after. This was a strange request, because up until now he had kept most testing away from the public eye, whereas this one would involve the entire world. Preparations were made and the citizenry were told what to expect. Checklists and worldwide safety equipment was reproduced using H8 and distributed.
The day came and 625 jets aligned themselves in a latitudinal path, 20 miles apart and 35 miles high, from the North to the South poles, traveling west, with many others on the ground ready to take over at predicted locations. Announcements were made on every manner of communication equipment, and all of humanity took their places indoors or under cover as they had been directed. Some ignored the requests; those people would be facing an unhealthy situation if protection was not available to them.
Liynas nodded and the switch was flipped. All the planes began broadcasting. The hexidecima's volume was calculated so that it was too weak to reach the ground by a safe amount, too weak even to affect flying animals. The shielded sound-broadcasting equipment was tail-mounted so that the aircraft themselves wouldn't be affected. People on the ground watched the sky from their windows with excitement. They were told that this was only an experiment and nothing might come of it, but hopeful chatter zoomed around the world nonetheless. If it worked this would be something to wish for, that was certain!
Behind the jets there was now something happening; it was clearly visible to the pilots while still too distant to be observed from the ground. There was smoke! Black smoke! Spreading out in a 'V' until it intersected the 'V' from its companion jets, it seemed as though the aircraft were burning up, as the black cloud gained thickness and lost striations until it was as night approaching from the East. Soon it made itself apparent to the citizenry at large. It was terrifying, and even with words of calm emanating from radios and televisions worldwide, there were still many who sought refuge deep in the bowels of their homes, slamming their cellar doors shut as if in preparation for tornadoes. But the jets were not burning up; this was in fact, exactly what was supposed to happen. They continued on their paths, oblivious of the escalating fear below them.
Deeper and darker the cloud became... and now it was apparent that it was coming closer as well! From circulating ground vehicles with mounted loudspeakers came more instructions, blared to everyone within earshot: "Find indoor protection. Avoid breathing the dark cloud. Remain calm. Find indoor protection..." Simulated nightfall descended in moments. The lights in every home and business on this no-longer-sunny day flashed on. The blackness grew closer, more ominous. A new sound began-- rain.
Not rain. It sounded like rain, but to the people living in deserts and by the ocean knew, this wasn't the sound of rain. It was the sound of sand, blowing sand, hitting the roofs and the windows and the streets of every community in the world! The blackness was not smoke, but it was pollution... for this particular hexadecima had the unique ability to separate carbon dioxide and other heavy compounds from the Earth's stratosphere and causing it, once cracked, to drop peacefully to the ground as a carpet of black silt!
Now people's jaws swung wide at the effect. The ground everywhere was coal, covered with an inch of carbon granules as far as the eye could see, looking like the landscape after a fresh volcano had cooled. But they lurched in surprise once they cast their eyes upward, to see what change might have occurred to the again-daylit sky, if any.
It had! It was a rich and vibrant blue, deeper than anyone could ever remember! Distant buildings and land features popped into clarity, more crisp in detail than in the last 50 years! The clouds were whiter than white and all brown city haze had disappeared! Reports were coming in from all over the world; Mexico City, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Tokyo... all were reporting that the air above their cities was now crystal clear and smelled like fresh rain!
New announcements were being formulated for wide distribution, to resolve world's the new issues. People everywhere heard them: "Once the cloud has fallen, please sweep or blow all black granules into your streets, where sweeping machinery will retrieve it for return to the planet's interior. Use your provided masks to avoid inhaling the dust. For people with large properties far from city streets, contact the city at the following number to arrange for a large-scale vacuum service. Continue to use your dust filters on windy days until the announcement of the last bit being settled. Our planet is pristine again! Let's keep it this way this time!"
A roar erupted in the L'Arc Technologie laboratories as it became clear what an incredible gift Liynas had bestowed upon them; he would have been lifted onto their shoulders, were he substantial. As it was, he accepted their appreciation with a humble smile. He waved the group quiet and, finding nowhere in the lab to stand tall, simply elevated himself into the air, his feet floating 30 inches above the floor. None of the scientists seemed overly perturbed by this image, though one young assistant ducked out of the room.
"Thank you. But you know I could have accomplished none of this without your patience, expertise and valuable hands. Mostly your hands," he smiled and the group chucked at his self-ribbing of insubstantiality. "This final assembly is the moment we have been working towards, and if successful, you may not notice for decades. But the change will be there. This last and most complex sound will be making only small adjustments to the virus which inhabits every one of you, but essential ones necessary for the survival of our species. First, it lowers the IQ selection goal to zero. That's right, we're not going to use IQ as a goal any more. When this is done, every person who wants to bear a child will be able to, provided they are already capable of doing so.
"So how will we achieve the reduced population so necessary for continued survival? I already said it. Every person who wants a child will be able to bear one. A single child. The next ten generations of parents will only be able to conceive one child. In the sad circumstance that a child is lost, the virus will allow that family to conceive another. The virus will watch the worldwide population for the goal of one billion, and once it is reached, will allow two children per couple from that point forward.
"I'm not a comfortable public speaker so let me conclude with this: You are all in a very real way, responsible for the salvation of our race. I am very proud of all of you and more importantly, you should each be proud of yourselves. Now, since we have all of our Hexadecimen assembled and ready to go, there's nothing stopping us from finally setting this plan in motion!" He turned to the lead scientist. "Doctor Schon, if you would do the honors?"
"I would be honored, Liynas." He pressed a few buttons, which powered up the worldwide sound distribution network. Green lights flashed across the screen, indicating a 'go'. His finger hovered over the 'Enter' button.
"Well? What are you waiting for?"
"I think there should be some kind of a record, don't you? Say 'cheese'," the Doctor said, pointing.
"Cheese? What do you mean by that?" Dr Schon initiated the final Hexadecima as a bright flash went off.
When their eyes had cleared... Liynas was gone.
"What? Where did he go? Liynas? Liynas!" but the man did not show up. The room was dim by comparison in his absence. "Well, he must be back in his time. Let's see what we've got!"
As expected, there was no apparent reaction. The complex sound made of sixteen Hexadecimen was silent and disturbed nobody. The scientists felt no different. The world outside was still as crystal clear as Young Earth. "I guess the results will become apparent over time. We'll set up observation data centers-- we should know in a fairly short time, as lower IQ people begin to produce children... er, a child... again. Good work, gentlemen, ladies! But it's not over yet... there is much work to be done, and I'm sure you know to what I am referring!"
Most of the scientists erupted, shouting, clamoring to be heard. One word was clear in the din.
"Hexadecimen!"
"That's right, people. There is a lot of experimentation on sound combinations about to commence! But as our guest said before... we must be very careful with this science. We can destroy our world with a foolish joining... but the wonders which await us are legion, if we but take the time to do it right. That is all. Take the week off. We'll see you first thing Monday, here." The scientists applauded briefly and began to scatter, murmuring amongst themselves. "Wait a second, son. Let me take a look at that picture you snapped."
The young man hesitated. Dr Schon noticed he was pale, and shaking. "What is it, son? Here, take a seat. Let me pour you a glass of water. What is it that's got you spooked? Was it the photograph? What could be strange about a simple image? Give me the camera, young man." He pried it from the young man's hand, who seemed to be unresponsive, as if in shock. "There's a good fellow. Oh, a video too, eh? Excellent. Now let me take a look at this and OH MY GOD!"
It was an ordinary photograph by all accounts. The Doctor was there, smiling at the lens, and all the other scientists were beaming in the background as well. But there was something very wrong. Liynas seemed to be getting pulled backwards somehow; a hook around the waist was how it seemed, folded at the waist. But even stranger was the image behind him, where a jagged circular distortion field now hovered.
Visible in this tear in time was a scene of utter chaos. The sky was orange and black; flames rose hundreds of feet from the modern city behind him. People were screaming, running, on fire. An explosion tilted a skyscraper to its destruction. But the expression on Liynas' face spoke the truth of his fate: it was a mask of unbridled horror.
Dr Schon sat heavily into a chair beside the shocky young man and he brought his hands up to cover his face. Sobbing with distress, his voice shook and cracked as he cried, "My good lord! What have we done!?"
He let out a deep, ragged breath, shaking. He put an arm around his now-smiling assistant and hugged him. "We did it, son! We did it!"
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